Busybee's Playlist

After You Drop a bunch of Fillers where’s the Killer?

A rock’n’roll dance party as summer nears its end.

On 11 August 2023, almost a year after releasing their most recent single, “Costeez,” Montreal’s The Flair released their self-titled debut EP.

Formed in 2019, The Flair came to be when guitarist George along with bassist Will and vocalist Shane were originally in another band together. Back then, the now vocalist was actually a drummer.

“We wanted to do something different at the time,” Shane says, “But I wanted to focus more on being a frontman and singer instead of a drummer. Jordan who plays the drums, is someone George and Will knew from high school. He is a unit of a drummer and it all just fell into place thankfully!”

On a hot rainy August afternoon, Montreal was plagued with a 5-second thunderstorm, and yet The Flair’s frontman Shane was an electric ball of energy, with a grin stretching from ear-to-ear, discussing his band’s debut album.

“The whole experience in the studio didn’t feel like work, I didn’t wake up in the morning feeling like I have to go to school,” Pinto laughs. “Let’s just say the sun was out, and there was no snow on the ground when we were recording, and it was great you know what I mean, so there’s a vibe in itself and that’s because like again surroundings play a huge part in the process, especially lyric writing, at least for me. The whole experience was just so fun and I feel like you can hear that in the album.”

Comprised of three songs, The Flair is an interesting mix of dark lyrics of self reflection with an upbeat hard-hitting tempo that makes you confused about whether to move your body to the beat, or ponder all your life decisions.

Starting off with the fast paced “Devil in Me” and the pedal build-up to the chorus in the first verse, slowing down with “Bloom Off the Rose” where the beat doesn’t quite change the rhythm but takes on a somber tone with Shane’s vocals dropping lower along with the notes played, and then picking it up with the end track “Technicolor” with a dance musicality to it, The Flair is a carefully curated EP to the point where the band couldn’t bring themselves to share one single to tease the audience.

“It’s kind of hard to pick that one song you know,” Shane says. “I mean, my opinion personally is that if you listen to each song separately, yes they have the potential to be their own single, I fully agree with that so I think the idea is we wanted to release this as a cohesive piece of music for people to have a different taste. Take a buffet right? So you have different meals that you can have at once and then put it together but in the same vein, it’s all called the same thing. Right now like I said earlier, sonically it all sounds the same so I think that was the idea.”

Shane also makes sure to stay true to The Flair’s essence of just doing whatever feels right for them rather than catering to the music industry’s pace.

“Let’s be real, like if we look at the way the music business works as a whole and the way I guess the audience, they want stuff instantaneous and instinctive, and yes of course being in the music business you have to cater to that demographic ,100%. However, I felt like at least on a personal level we needed to stray away from that and just do something that was unapologetically us, and then we all just said fuck it let’s do an EP, all the songs sound good as an EP.”

And a few funny anecdotes came out of that EP; like the time bassist Will and frontman Shane had “creative differences” concerning the genre in which “Technicolor” belongs to.

“I’m thinking of like Studio outtake,” Shane ponders for a while. “Okay, this is my favorite one, OK when we played “Technicolor” for the first time I don’t know what the fuck I was thinking or what was going through my mind but I thought it was a disco song. I hear it and I think disco and I’m thinking, I’m shaking in all these parts, especially that middle portion you know what I mean. We’ll be talking about it in the studio and I was getting excited about it, and I was like doesn’t this song sound so fucking disco, and like I’m singing it like a dad song. And then Will is like that’s enough from you, you need to stop! I thought it was the most hilarious thing I’ve ever witnessed, and I wish you could see it too, and I give credit to Will … His comedic timing is second to none so when he told me like “no shut the fuck up, it’s not a disco song it’s not! Don’t! You better not tell anybody it’s a disco song;” I told him immediately I’m telling the world that it’s a disco song whether you like it or not so that was pretty funny.”

True to his talent in livening up the crowd, with frontman skills inspired by a fascinating mix of Guns ‘n’ Roses’ Axl Rose, the late Queen frontman Freddy Mercury, and The Rock’s WWE persona, Shane is a born entertainer, incapable of getting his point across without gesticulating in his place, and his limbs flailing.

He believes the best word to describe him is “entertainer” as he strives to get the people moving, smiling, and always leave them satisfied yet craving more.

“I want people to have fun at our concerts, and to dance along our songs. For “Technicolor,” I will make sure they’re all grooving to the beat once I’m on stage playing it live, and if one person isn’t shaking their hips, I will fucking make them!” Shane jokes, and then continues seriously, “But I also hope listeners take more than just the party aspect of the album [The Flair]. Lyrically speaking, it’s a very profound and very vivid record for me. For people who know me, they’ll maybe understand it, when they put all the pieces together they’ll realize like “Oh fuck!” What inspired it? It’s so crazy, because it wasn’t intentional but lyrically speaking from “Devil in Me” to “Bloom” to “Technicolor” it’s up for [the audience] to figure out what it means. I know what it means to me but hopefully they’re gonna hear it and they’re gonna get the same “oh shit!” moment that I got, because again it wasn’t intentional and I fucking wrote it myself. It’s crazy how life works sometimes when you take a step back and you’re like “oh..” and hopefully they feel the same.”

The Flair (EP) is available on all streaming platform, and will be performed live at Petit Campus on 19 August!